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Change2Green
is a scam designed to trick users into installing a rogue app and participating in fake online surveys. Facebook customers who comply with the demands and Share and Comment on a shady event page are requested to click on a link that points to an app called Change2Green. This application can later be utilized by crooks to make posts on the user’s behalf to promote this and other malicious scams. After the app is allowed access to the profile, the victims are presented with a page that permits them to choose their location between the US and UK. Once that is done, a pop-up window informs that they are the lucky winners of a prize. This is where the fraudsters start making bundles of money. First they ask the user to enter his/her mobile number in order to win an iPad. This is actually a subscription trap which signs up users to services that cost a lot. In the next phase, a number of classic surveys are presented, each promising more fabulous prizes. While no one gets them or the green Facebook profile, the scam artists earn large sums each time someone completes a survey or enters a phone number. Other versions of this scam are called Facebook Green, Get 1,000,000 People To Join And We Will Turn Facebook Green, and Install Green F.A.C.E.B.O.O.K. Payload According to this message, which is currently being posted across Facebook, users can switch their Facebook profiles to green by clicking a link to an event. However, the message is not legitimate. In fact, it is a typical Facebook survey scam. No amount of clicking or subsequent participation will result in the user receiving a green profile. Those who fall for the ruse and click the link in the spam message will first be taken to the following "Event" Page and instructed to join, share the event, and post a message on the Event page's Wall: They will also be instructed to click a further link to install the "Change2Green" app: Next, they will be presented with a page that shows a supposed preview of a green profile and asks them to identify as either US or UK users: Next, a popup box like the one shown below will appear: After they click the "OK" button, they will then be taken to a series of bogus survey pages in the understanding that they must participate in one or more of the surveys before receiving their green profile. Some of the "survey" pages ask users to provide personal information including name, address and contact details, ostensibly to allow them to go in the draw for a prize. Others invite them to download dubious toolbars, games or software. Still others will claim that users must provide their mobile phone number - thereby subscribing to absurdly expensive text messaging services - in order to get the results of a survey or go in the running for a prize: The user will soon find him or herself caught in a confusing tangle of open webpages, all offering supposedly free gifts or services in exchange for participating. Often, trying to exit the pages will call up various "alerts" that try to convince the person to stay on the page rather than navigate away. The people who set up these scams earn a commission via a dubious affiliate marketing system each and every time someone completes an "offer" or "survey". While affiliate marketing is a legitimate method of conducting business online, some participants are more than willing to use reprehensible and underhand tactics to increase profits, including the offer of non-existent gifts or prizes via Facebook survey scams. At the end of the process, the hapless user will still not have a green Facebook profile. Moreover, the user will have promoted the scam via his or her own Facebook profile and also installed a rogue application that will spam his or her friends with even more garbage. References *What is a Facebook Survey Scam? - Survey Scams Explained Category:Scam Category:Social networking worm Category:Rogue software